CVS Shopping Trip

I have started my new year, new shopping habits. I'm trying to get things we need/use for as little money out of pocket as possible. I know I'm not always going to be able to, but I have decided to dedicate a few hours a week to organizing my coupons (I'm still working on the best strategy for this), looking through the sale ads and researching on the internet to find the best "bang" for my buck.


I'm going to treat my couponing like a part-time job by dedicating time in the evenings a couple days a week to do the work that needs to be done to minimize my spending.


That being said, I did my first trip to CVS this morning...


My plan was as follows:


Transaction 1:
Oral B spinbrush: $5.99 (-$3.00 coupon from P&G) = $2.99 (earn 2 ECB)
2 Dawn dish soap: $.99 each (-$.50 for Hand Renewal & -$.25 for regular) = $.49 & $.74
Eggs: $1.49
TOTAL: $5.71 + tax (approx $.50)*
use 5.99 ECB from previous purchase for approx $.22 OOP + earn 9 ECB for quarterly earnings + 2 ECB for toothbrush


Transaction 2:
Huggies Overnights: $9.49 (earn 1 ECB)
3 Hunt's Snack Pack (10/$10): $3.00 (-$.45/3 manu coupon) = 2.55
TOTAL: $12.04 + tax (approx $1.05)
use 9 ECB + 2 ECB for approx $2.09 OOP + earn 1 ECB


Transaction 3:
CVS Ibuprofen 500 ct: $9.99
TOTAL: $9.99 plus tax (approx $.88)
use 6 ECB from previous purchase + 1 ECB for approx $3.86 OOP


Of course they were totally out of the toothbrushes so I had to regroup my transactions.


Here's what I actually did:


Transaction 1:
Huggies Overnights: $9.49 (earn 1 ECB)
3 Hunt's Snack Pack (10/$10): $3.00 (-$.45/3 manu coupon) = 2.55
TOTAL: $12.04 + tax ($.94)
used 5.99 ECB + 6 ECB for $.99 OOP + earn 1 ECB and quarterly ECBs (9 ECB) + bonus 5 ECB for Beauty Club Rewards which I was not expecting.


Transaction 2:
2 Dawn dish soap: $.99 each (-$.50 for Hand Renewal & -$.25 for regular) = $.49 & $.74
CVS Ibuprofen 500 ct: $9.99
TOTAL: $11.22 + tax ($.26)
used 9 ECB + 1 ECB for $1.48 OOP


and I still have 5 ECBs for next week.


TRIP TOTAL: $2.47


Not bad in my opinion. It's all stuff we use and/or need. I plan on a trip to Walgreens later today and will post after I finish to see how I did.

*We have a weird sales tax system that taxes food items at a different rate from everything else so I'll estimate the taxes for the transactions.

Valentine's Day

I wanted to share with you an easy treat that I made last year and plan on making again this year for Valentine's Day. I saw this recipe for Santa Hats and modified it. Instead of shaping the meringue into hats, I shaped them into hearts. They came out perfect.

I just made some home made ice cream which called for 8 egg yokes, so now I can use the whites for this.

Being Green-er!

To me being Green is about recycling and reusing things you already have and conserving energy whenever possible.

I have purchased some energy efficient light bulbs and am using them to replace the old bulbs as they burn out. (I'm caught between going green and saving green right now). We also purchased an HE washing machine and dryer when we bought our house. We have a programmable thermostat and keep a/c temperature higher during the day when we're not home, so we are not cooling an empty house. I've also started turning on only the light in the room I'm in, turning it off as I leave the room, and opening the blinds during the day. (You must know, I have always been someone who turned on every light in the house because I was going to go back "in there".)

My latest "green" idea came for someone else's blog (sorry, I can't remember who). The question was asked about what people were doing with all of the plastic shopping bags you get from CVSing, etc. Someone wrote that they use them for their "smelly" garbage. Well, I had so many of them and nowhere to recycle them, I decided to start using them all the time. I even found a garbage can at Target specifically for those types of bags.



I usually only have to take one trip out to the "big" can a day.

Not only am I recycling the bags (being green), but I'm also saving money by not spending money on trash bags (saving green).

Shopping Saturday

Okay, so I lied in my Frugal Friday post about not shopping this weekend. Turns out, I needed dog food, so a shopping I did go.

As I was cleaning this weekend I ran across a $10 CVS gift card I had redeemed from MyPoints. Since I technically would not be spending any of MY money, and I couldn't let the dog starve, I decided to see what I could do to get some ECBs because I am going to need to get diapers/pull ups really soon. And I did really well!

Here are my freebies:




It's not a lot, but it was free. Here's how and the rest of my trip:

Olay Regenerist moist wipes ($5.99) minus $3.00 Mfr coupon and $3.00 CRT = .01 overage
CVS Pantiliners ($.99) minus $1.00 CRT = .01 overage
2 cans of Pringles (2 for $2.00) - treats for my girls as a reward to being good while shopping
5 cans of dog food @ $.99

Total after tax: $7.63 (on gift card)

Earned: $1.99 in ECBs
BONUS: $8.50 ECBs for Spring Spending.

I have a $2.00 ECB from previous purchase so I have $12.49 in ECBs for diapers and to roll over and earn more ECBs.